


The Arc of Conflict, Saga 13: All Fall Out

by bzarcher, solarbird



Series: Of Gods and Monsters [90]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alliances, Authority Challenge, Bisexual Female Character, Confusion, Consequences, Conspiracy, Deception, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Doubt, Escape, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Intrigue, Lies, Multi, Oasis (Overwatch), Other, Political Alliances, Polyamorous Character, Secrets, Soldier Enhancement Program, Surprises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 09:04:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19826896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarbird/pseuds/solarbird
Summary: Alliances, it has been said, are at their weakest on the brink of defeat, and on the brink of victory. After defeating the China Sea omnium, the gods of Oasis offered their help to Russia, to defeat their own Siberian threat, and Russia accepted that offer -  but made additional secret plans of their own.Losing Koschei to a Talon-flagged Russian attack appears, to all observers, to have knocked the gods back, forcing a restart of talks at the UN.But it also created doubts amongst friends, further damaging alliances already strained. And as the various human and omnic factions try to determine their next moves, some of the individuals involved start to make decisions of their own.Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflictis a continuance ofThe Arc of Ascension,The Arc of Creation, andThe Armourer and the Living Weapon. To follow the story as it appears,please subscribe to the series.





	The Arc of Conflict, Saga 13: All Fall Out

**Author's Note:**

> dirtyclaws has launched [a public fan-run _Of Gods and Monsters_ discord server](https://discord.gg/pDZMpVT) and invites everyone to come join it. ^_^

“It’s still her. She's still Hana."

Lúcio nodded, glancing over to Brigitte, then going back to checking his bags. The new tour started in the morning.

"But.” he said.

“Yeah." Brigitte looked a little despondent, a little lost. "But.”

“It’s like Jack said. They really do whatever they have to do to win." _Whatever the cost_ , he thought, Jack's assessment echoing in his ears.

"We all do, though," Brigitte replied. "They just don't, they don't... hide from it. They don't pretend things aren't what they are." She frowned, struggling with the idea. They're... _she's_... clear about things like that, all the time, now. Direct.”

"She always was," Lúcio agreed. "But whatever they did really turned it up, and we can't pretend it didn't."

Brigitte looked at her phone, the text log still up. In one window, telling Jack she was heading out on the tour with Lúcio, as a bodyguard, and as head of security. Reinhardt approved. Commander Morrison did not. She knew which she thought mattered. In the other, their group chat with Hana, strangely quiet since Oasis was attacked.

"Do you think he helped the Russians?"

Lúcio tried to look over the manifest again. Most of it would be handled by the road crew, of course - and for that matter, already had been. Everything was ready. But he always did one extra night-before check, before final loadout in the morning.

Besides, it's not like he was sleeping much lately. 

"Fuck, girl," he said as he dropped the list onto his suitcase. "I dunno."

"Really?" she said, unhappy that she didn't know either.

"You're there more than I am, you know more than I do. I mean... he _could've._ He talked to them enough. Met with them enough. Even... before... he never told us everything. What do you think?"

She didn't want to say, so she didn't. " _They_ think he did."

"Yeah. I know.” He met her eyes, searching, and she could never bring herself to look away. “What do _you_ think?"

"I think..."

She thought back to conference call she hadn't learned about until days later, when Hana first went in to be "upgraded.” To save Korea. To become... whatever they were now.

"...I think...I understand why they think he could have done it.”

"Do you think he _did?_ "

"I..."

She hesitated a long moment, and her eyes closed with a sigh as her whole body deflated. 

"I don’t know.”

\-----

Reinhardt talked a lot, usually loudly. Reinhardt,the boisterous, held up spirits in dark times. Reinhardt, the pillar, always - _almost_ always - ready and willing to charge in, to do the right thing, whenever he knew what it was.

"You have kept too many secrets, Jack."

Reinhardt rarely sounded disappointed, and when he did, it cut deeply.

"This _isn't_ one of them," Morrison‘s voice was firm, even as he slumped down in his chair. "I know, it looks bad. But this isn't on me."

Reinhardt nodded. "And I accept what you say. But keeping so many secrets implies there are more being kept."

That brought a weary sigh. "Yes, I keep secrets. We all do. Particularly given what Overwatch has become, we _have_ to. But not this one.” He shook his head, then looked up to meet their eyes. "I swear to all of you, I didn't help Russia duplicate the SEP. I wouldn't put anyone through what we went through. Ever. It wasn't worth it." 

Torbjørn nodded, his eyes thoughtful. "For whatever it might be worth, I believe you."

Reinhardt grunted as he stood, his hands moving to emphasize his words. "As do I! But you juggle too many different versions of the truth. People can tell, and when two versions of your truths collide, they fall apart."

"You think that's what's happened?" Ana‘s holographic avatar asked from Taipei. "I just see more of the same, myself. Oasis deciding what justifies whatever they want to do is the actual reality. And then if the two conflict, they make their own version 'real.'"

"I'm not talking about Oasis," the knight objected. "I'm talking about Brigitte, and Lúcio. _They_ have doubts, now, and they are not alone.”

" _They_ have a girlfriend," Ana sniped, "and that clouds their vision."

"It’s _possible_ that they might be a little bit right," Morrison slumped. "I didn't actively help them, but I travelled there enough. Met with Volskaya enough. They could've been collecting samples the whole time. Skin cells, residue on cups, on plates - hell, for all I know they were bagging stool samples."

Ana’s sharp laugh finally broke through the tension in the room. "You mean you didn't hold it in the entire time?"

The oldest soldier snorted. "No. I can be full of shit sometimes..."

"Ha!" Torbjørn exclaimed. "Got that right!" as Reinhardt chuckled.

"But not that literally." He shook his head. "No, I didn't help them. But I might've... accidentally... made it easy for them to help themselves."

Ana screwed up her mouth. Whether Russia had really made things worse, or simply revealed how bad things really were, she didn't know. "Well, however it happened, it did happen. And now, everyone has to deal with it."

\-----

"...and with the various Vishkar properties having been destroyed, we should be dealing with more ordinary spycraft," General Arutyunova said. "Our agents in both Iraq and India are continuing to search out additional opportunities for embedded contacts. There are promising leads in both countries."

Normally the head of the GRU would not be giving such a presentation, of course. It would be an aide. But in this case, with matters before the general staff so very sensitive, well. One might as well do the work oneself.

Volskaya nodded, approving.

Tendaji looked uncertain, glancing between Katya, General Arutyunova, and, at the end of the table, the acting director of the FSB, Izabella Seleznyova. "They have all been demolished, then?"

"I would hope so. The immediate destruction orders went out a week ago," Volskaya replied. "They've been using that against us in their propaganda." She glanced approvingly over at Director Seleznyova. "Your agency's video of armed resistance helped counter that, domestically. Your editors did a good job, pass along my compliments."

"Are you sure?" Kamaria leaned in. "Have they? Have you _checked?_ "

She missed Maximillian. He'd gone, quietly, one night, leaving her a perfectly rendered note in fountain pen ink on paper, saying he no longer felt it necessary to remain in an area where he was so very clearly unwelcome, and unwanted. 

She'd called him, in Monaco. He had not answered.

"What are you getting at, Kamaria?"

"Have you _checked?_ "

"We... have received no other reports of resistance," Seleznyova glared. "Why would..."

" _Check._ " she said, before realising she'd overstepped. "Please. Check."

"Excuse me, I know you are a valued advisor under unusual circumstances, but..."

Katya glanced back and forth between her minister of interior security as they argued. _Kamaria... made a very good point_ , she thought, and interrupted the argument. " _Oasis_ ," she said, loudly, "is exceptionally good at changing peoples' minds," she reminded the FSB Acting Director. "Often without them even noticing."

The director sucked in air, a little sound of annoyance - or was it fear? - as the president continued. "Advisor Tendaji is correct. I want every site checked, in person, by a team of no less than two, monitored remotely."

The Director wanted to protest, but knew when not to, and so, did not. Fortunately, as a new appointee, if someone had fallen down, it would not fall further onto her head. "Yes, Madame President. Site visits to verify demolition. It will be done."

"Given that they are simply visits, it should not take long to organise. I want a complete report no later than tomorrow. Every one of those ... abominations needs either to be rubble, or be in progress to becoming rubble.."

"It will take more time, particularly in the east, where..."

"It's not a suggestion, Director. Wartime authority is still in effect. Make it happen."

Seleznyova nodded. "Yes, Madam President."

"If there is no other business?"

Twenty minutes later, the President and the refugee Advisor sat, alone, in the Presidential dining room, guards outside at the doors keeping their private afternoon tea very, very private.

"I backed you in there, Kami," the President said, pouring the two cups full. "It better not embarrass me to have done so. I am assuming you know something."

Kamaria nodded, pulling her tablet out of her briefcase. "I think I do. I did not realise what I was seeing at the time, but when Arutyunova said the developments were no longer a concern, I flashed on something I saw this morning. Where is it..."

Her fingers worked the tablet in front of her, sliding through news, recent stories...

"There."

She pointed to a video, to the background, a story about nothing that mattered - a group of Trabant racers, showing how much speed and power they could get out of hundred-year-old Soviet antiques - where a particular blue and white building gleamed, partly behind two other, older buildings, bright as the sun.

Katya frowned.

"You're sure that's current? Not stock footage?"

"I think so. Watch."

She let the story run, as the camera tracked away from the presenter and to the crowd, flying over the assembled vehicles, getting closeups, before zooming in on a ground correspondent, talking to a particularly enthusiastic woman describing the process of restoring 20th century resin and horsehair.

"The festival is still going on," Kamaria noted, having heard the presenter say exactly that. "So, live. Or, perhaps, yesterday. And the development appears untouched."

"And if _that_ one is still intact," Katya frowned, "so are others."

"Possibly many. Possibly _all._ "

Katya shuddered. Intelligence had decided a teleport booster must've been inside a local development in Moscow, and she knew with certainty _that_ development had gone down. _But how many remain?_

She decided not to sweeten her tea as she sat back and contemplated the possibilities of betrayal.

\-----

Las Fantasmas strapped themselves into the small but very fast and very stealthy personal flyer. A gift from Oasis, one they had - to revive and refute an old aphorism - looked very much in the mouth, and found to be entirely clean.

Then they'd asked Athena to take it apart too. She also found it clean.

In the cargo hold, behind them, the promised technologies - and more, really. The latest versions of everything Sombra had owed them, back then, and the latest progress, now. Some production, some experimental, some even secret. It had taken a long time, but their protegé had delivered.

And in the passenger seat sat a small storage cube and collection of processors no one other than Sombra and Athena and the six of herself even knew existed.

"Are you ready to depart?" Athena asked, in Spanish, over the flyer's internal comms.

"Yep," they replied, also in Spanish. "You gonna handle it?"

"Certainly."

The flier lifted, smoothly, from the small docking pad on which it had lain. Below, Sombra, visibly sad to see them go, waved.

She'd hoped they'd stay. They said it would be her turn to visit them, next, and to stay in touch this time, and they'd all said they would. Most of them even meant it. "I'll keep your secret," she'd said, and they all believed that much, at least.

Besides, Athena would be there. Watching. Just in case.

"After all," Athena had told the collective. "She is, in some ways, one of us. Not as much as you, but - one of us."

Once the flyer cleared Oasis airspace, Las Fantasmas filed their new flight plan, and changed course. Still Mexico, but further in. Deeper in the country, where they'd be even harder to find.

"So," they'd asked Athena, the day before. "You're sticking with Overwatch? Even now?" Freira gestured around. "Looks to me like you're setting up shop here, too. At least, part of you."

"I am not abandoning them. I have not, after all, forgiven Lena, or Moira, or, really, any of them, for what they did."

Freira nodded. "But you're closer to it, aren't you?"

"Perhaps." 200 milliseconds delay. "But it is more that..." 1450 milliseconds. "...that I have, as of late, come to appreciate the value of hedging one's bets... and of playing both sides."

"Really?" Galena replied, a quick of humour, perhaps, or appreciation in her tone. "You?"

"Yes," Athena confirmed. "It is something... I have learned, just recently, from a friend."

\-----

"It certainly seems to have taken the wind out of their sails," LEITER typed to M.

"I wouldn't go that far," she typed, before pausing, and not adding "LEITER," even if she thought it.

She'd fought the nickname nonsense for the longest time, but in the end, it just seemed to stick, and she'd given up. They even seemed to like it, a bit, so who was she to tell her opposite what code name to use.

"They may have taken a breath. They may be shifting strategies. But they are not done."

"Didn't say they were," LEITER replied. "But whatever they're doing now, it's not killing more Russian generals."

"As far as we know," M typed, snippiness audible her typing.

"We're confident," LEITER typed back.

"We aren't, as much, but..."

The Iraqi ambassador had made the rather unusual decision to bring the Oasis PM to the UN, to talk to the Russian foreign minister directly. The talks, they said, had been "tense" and "unproductive," but everyone watching it had described the existence of any process at all as "hopeful."

"...we do think they've put whatever they had next on hold. But only for now."

She picked up her pen and flipped it about in her fingers - an old nervous habit from school - and put it back down as LEITER responded.

"So they're looking for opportunities," they typed. "But for what? Not more assassinations. They can do that whenever they feel like it."

"Well," she replied, "that's the question, isn't it?"

"That, and what we're going to do in response."

"God, not more SEP, I hope."

"I couldn't tell you if I knew, but fortunately I don't know, so I can speculate all the hell I want. And I don't think so."

"Good. That was a disaster."

"But something's up. Nobody's said anything, but you can tell. Budgets are being moved. Some of it's even made it into the press."

"How far along?"

"Always hard to say, you know? Particularly with matters like this."

"I do know, indeed."

"So are we still on for Nassau?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

**Author's Note:**

> This is the nineteenth instalment of _Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflict_. To follow the story, [subscribe to the series via this link](https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024), rather than to the individual works.


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